Bride of Glass

by Jeanette Lynn

  Spotting his indecision, I tensed in Tokre’s arms, my hand dropping to curl to my chest, leaning in closer to him. Tokre, watching Zhuii, took note of my reaction and glanced up, snarling warningly at the sight of Rek shuffling so close now.

  “Enough!” the darker furred beastie called out, and then I’m assuming he repeated it in their language as growling words followed. Entering the area, he stepped forward while frosty-eyes stood back and watched. The dark furred beastie spoke English for me, I guessed, offering a short, curt nod in my direction as he strode towards the center of the impromptu fighting ring.

  Tokre slid back towards the crowd and away from the fight ring when Zhuii tapped him and discreetly did something with his hands that Tokre seemed to comprehend, though he wasn’t happy about it, and together they stood back.

  The darker furred beast walked up to Rek then, barking something at him in their language, to which Rek, choking on a snarl at this point, his teeth visibly gnashing, nodded at the myriad of questions the darker beast seemed to be rapid firing at him.

  Zhuii led Tokre over towards the path that led to the village huts, a tiny smirk on the squat beast’s face as the males gathered around slowly dispersed, anyone in their way quickly clearing a path. Any beastie who thought to stare at Zhuii or Tokre too long got a warning snarl from Zhuii, then promptly looked away.

  Zhuii was a little slow on the uptake, sure, I thought to myself, yet formidable all the same in his own right, and pretty darned quick to play catchup.

  “Rosie’s Tokre needs to see a medic,” the tall beanpole of a beastie told Zhuii, running up to us.

  Jumpy, I startled, relaxing when I realized it was just the blue-eyed snarky one. The size of these men and their ability for stealth didn’t make a lick of sense to me.

  Zhuii ignored the male with a disdainful sniff and a chuff.

  “No tricks, No-yell,” Zhuii told the thinner yet no less bulked up male gruffly, letting Tokre set the pace as he followed. “Rosie-lindy no like No-yell, Zhuii no like No-yell, Tokre not gonna like No-yell. So,” he turned to curl his lip at the male, waving him off like a bad smell, “No-yell shoo.”

  “For the- Grrrr! For the last time, Zoobie,” the male shouted after us, “it’s Noyel! Noil, like boil.” More growling followed, but then he stopped. “Your Tokre is hurt, human! Does Rosie hear Noyel? Hurt!”

  “Does the hoo-hah salve stop bleeding?” I thought out loud curiously, already starting to feel woozy at just the thought of all those cuts and the blood and- Ack!

  I’d deal with my own personal problems of the frost bitten limb variety in a bit here, if I survived handling Tokre’s current, more pressing issues. This isn’t about me and my squeamishness. This is much bigger than that. Tokre’s injured!

  “You stole me, you’re stuck with me, big guy. Ain’t no gettin’ around that... Stuck, I say, until further notice.” I was mumbling, ranting under my breath, half mad with worry, for Tokre, for me, the possibility of being even more at the mercy of these strange beasts than I already was.

  I’m too freshly captured, taken, and mated to be a widow, I thought hysterically.

  Daring a peek as a sticky thickness made its presence well-known, bathing my chest with swiftly cooling, congealed goop, I was one hundred percent certain I’d begun to pale visibly.

  It’s just blood. It’s fine. It’s just- Ah- A-a-a-

  I had a good old fashioned, grand looksee for my unreasonably overly curious self, glancing down, and completely forgot how to breathe. “L-l-l-l-lots of blood...” Oh god, lots of blood. So much damn- “B-b-b-b-but it’s fine. It’s totally fine.”

  Zhuii scowled up at me as I clutched at Tokre, my head shaking vehemently as I glanced away, looking anywhere but straight down, muttering to myself.

  Determined to get us home, cuddling me as close as I’d allow, my mate toted me along stoically. Noyel trotted along after us, but at a distance, growling at us in his language as Zhuii snorted in retort.

  “Hoo-ha... salve?” The orange-eyed beast looked to me questioningly.

  “You know, the tingly stuff?” I muttered absently, between sniffles, trying to remind my body now was not the time to puke or suddenly burst into tears. It’s just blood. It’s just blood. It was just blood that he’d shed for me.

  Zhuii blinked, lifted his wide hand and scratched at his furry chin, then blinked again. “Zhuii no know what...”

  I didn’t hear anything after that, startling when Tokre stumbled a little, his hold on me loosening fractionally. When I would have tumbled he caught me, but not before I slid down his chest, slicking through oozing wetness, his gaping cuts brushing my bare flesh.

  A shocked whimper croaked from my throat, and I wanted to leap away but knew I couldn’t—I’d end up injuring him further as he tried to hold onto me and I squirmed to get free. Tokre let out a short, plaintive groan at the motion and my subsequent movement, but nothing more.

  My reaction, gaping between us when he lifted me up, putting me back in place against him, like it was freaking nothing, was not nearly as calm or collected.

  Luckily, right as my stomach started to attempt some serious acrobatic feats and my cheeks filled, bile rising in my throat along with it, choking out the screaming squeal I wanted to let loose, we’d just reached the hut.

  “Down. Down. Down,” I practically screeched, tapping an uninjured portion of his shoulder to motion that he should drop my rump NOW.

  Tokre complied, though he looked confused by my demand, and more than a little hesitant. He was too weak to even snarl at me in argument. The second my feet touched the ground he began to wobble, like the adrenaline and everything riding him from the fight had finally dwindled down.

  “Gonna puke, gonna puke.” Everything was a fucking song with me lately, but shit if there were a couple of talking animals to take care of bs for me. Or gold diggin’ dwarves to watch over me, damn it.

  Picking up my mate’s hand, I slapped it to the side of the hut, more than a bit wobbly myself as I stumbled around him.

  “Zoobles, don’t leave him!” Motioning at the orange-eyed beast to stay with him for a moment, figuring the back of the house as good a place as any for this to go down, I ran ‘round the back, stumbling my way towards the backyard-esque section behind the hut to let my gag reflex do its thing.

  I was kneeling on the ground, groaning, heaving desperately, spittle hanging from my mouth in a long string of saliva and various goop, the contents of my stomach laid out before me, when footsteps approaching pricked my consciousness.

  A soft snarl rent the air and the heavy, stomping, stumbling footfalls quickly coming upon me let me know Tokre had stubbornly followed. The heavier grunts and pounding stomps following his alerted me Zhuii had, too.

  “Just fucking great. Nothing like an audience for yet another fucking embarrassing moment,” I muttered under my breath, wiping my lips on the back of my hand.

  Vomit now graced the back of my hand in a long, equally puke-inducing, line of slime. Grimacing down at myself and yet another mess I’d made, I began piling snow on top of further proof of my weak constitution and squishy nature. Shuffling back once the worst of it was done, I grabbed more fresh snow up, intent on cleaning my ice blocks for hands with it, then my mouth.

  Pink tinted the snow but I was numb to it, though I understood it meant I’d probably just swiped blood across my face moments ago. On my knees in mounds of white stuff, staring around sightlessly, more than a little numb and yet somehow ridiculously emotional, my eyes watered and my vision began to grow blurry.

  A small hiccup left me and my lips started to tremble. “I just want to go home,” I cried out softly. “I didn’t- I didn’t ask for this. Any... any of this-”

  “Why Zhuii smell piss?” the orange-eyed beast grumbled aloud, glancing towards me, then the spot I’d relieved myself the other night, suddenly alarmed when I began to cry harder.

  Tokre’s gaze snapped to Zhuii’s and he lifted his hand, gesturing somethi
ng at the male. Zhuii, spotting me watching, shifted uncomfortably and glanced away, as if he didn’t see it or me, or didn’t want me to see, but not before giving a quick jerk of his chin in my direction.

  Tokre, following where he’d just motioned, stared down at me, his brow furrowing when I couldn’t meet his gaze.

  “I just want to go home,” I repeated, not that anyone honestly cared.

  Another dry heave overtook me and I groaned, hunching, dropping forward, my hands fisting the ground. My fingernails dug into soggy, wet earth, and I sobbed between empty retching.

  A tall form loomed over me, casting a shadow, then dropped right behind me, a wall of heat that barely took the edge off my incessant shivering pressing into my back in a weak hug. Large hands with ridiculous claws began stroking my hair, his strange coo working its way up his throat.

  Tokre.

  I said his name out loud, allowing him to pull me back to him when the worst of my stomach cramps finally eased.

  Tokre gladly slumped down right there in the middle of the ground with me, careful as he pulled me into his lap, his big, strong arms wrapping around me.

  “I don’t understand you. Don’t understand any of you,” I wailed, yet rested my head on his shoulder when he nudged me towards it, snuggling my body into his.

  Mine, he mouthed, growling something out that possibly meant the same in his language.

  “You got all beat up for me,” I said on a sniffle, resting my cheek on his hand, where I absently began caressing it. “You beat that asshole up for slapping my ass... That’s- that’s gotta be the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for me. But you kidnapped me. And you fought that bear. And you scared the- the- the wee outta me! And you keep scaring me. But then you cried when you thought I’d left you. But you let me leave in the first place, and after all the trouble you took to get me here in the first place! And I- and you- And we- I-I-I-I don’t even fucking know!”

  I couldn’t explain why I was crying, screaming, yelling, then wailing uncontrollably like a broken siren- No, yes, I could, but I didn’t want to think about it, much less analyze anything. I was too wild with everything to think straight. I felt unhinged and reckless, out of my head.

  So, I’d take this one crazy rollercoaster at a time, and feel I would, and I felt like fucking crying, damn it.

  “Rosie cold. Needs dry things,” I heard No-yell tell Zhuii quietly, to which Zhuii grunted something at the beastie that had him snorting a chuff. “Tokre needs medical.”

  “Noyel just want to get to Rosie-lindy,” Zhuii chuffed on a huff.

  Walking over to us, the strangest beastie of them all, with his crazy cotton candy blue hair, wild eyes, and shorter stature, went to grab me from Tokre. But with a snarl rumbling his chest and his arms tightening around me, my mate refused.

  “Zhuii explain to Tokre,” Noyel said on a sigh. The beast motioned between our little backyard vomit watch group, gesturing between us. “Tokre scared. Help him. Tell Tokre. Explain.”

  Zhuii gave the thinner beast a long look over his shoulder, still growling at Tokre’s stubbornness, but shook his head. Grunting, he stood with his arms crossed over his chest, his lips a grim line, and raised a fuzzy eyebrow at Tokre.

  “Up,” Zhuii commanded, pointing at us with a casual flick of his hand. When Tokre gave no indication he understood, Zhuii grumbled something under his breath.

  Zhuii knew hand things Tokre understood. Why wasn’t he using one of those? Surely something they both knew would get the job done? An up, in, house sign of some kind?

  Pointing to me, his hand waving up and down, a snarl left Zhuii’s throat. “Noyel stupid, but right.” Lifting his shaggy head, his eyes met mine evenly. “Rosie-lindy need to warm up, but Rosie-lindy’s mate a-” the growling words came into play here, to which Noyel gave one short but emphatic nod in agreement to the back of Zhuii’s head.

  “No nod, No-yell,” Zhuii snapped, like he had eyes in the back of his head.

  A growl left Noyel. “Zhuii just said Noyel’s name right!” he burst out, tossing his furry arms up in the air in a flair of dramatics. “Twice.”

  “Zhuii no say no thing, No-yell. Zhuii no know what No-yell mean.” As if to prove his point, his eyes widened comically as he turned to stare at the other male over his shoulder in pure, feigned puzzlement, and I could make out his long white lashes blinking in put-on innocence. “Zhuii stupid like No-yell likes to tell. Zhuii no know anything. No-yell should just leave. Not wanted. Broken Tokre and stupid Zhuii waste of space. Not worth No-yell time or smayshuns.”

  “It’s patience, not smayshuns, you blue-haired cretin, and I only said that because-” Noyel paused, as if just then remembering my presence and the reason for the rush inside.

  The blue-eyed beastie suddenly turned sheepish, his eyes meeting mine briefly, his skin flushing a funny color. With a grumble rumbling his chest, the taller beast said something else, not bothering to speak English—which meant it was obviously not meant for my poor little human ears. I didn’t care, I was in my own little world, on my own little orbit.

  “I’m c-c-c-c-cold,” I chattered out between my clacking teeth, curling my toes into Tokre’s warmth. I felt frozen clean through.

  Tokre made an unhappy noise at my ice cubes for tootsies wiggling their way between the crease in his bent leg, but he got the picture. Staggering to his feet, stubbornly refusing to put me down, he fumbled and stumbled his way back around towards the front of his hut.

  Zhuii and Noyel, too busy arguing to see beyond each other’s fat, furry faces, didn’t move when we came upon them.

  “M-m-m-move,” I instructed the still bickering pair.

  Noyel jumped like he’d just been goosed, and Zhuii hopped back, hugging the wall.

  “Sooooo cold,” I felt the need to chatter aloud.

  As we rounded the side of the hut, the door just beyond, I found myself staring at a jumble of flying fur, the perpetually squabbling pair we’d passed just moments before having come ‘round the other side to beat us to the door. Tokre was moving slower and slower by the minute—something I took as a very bad sign—a very bad sign that had me shaking for an entirely different reason—which afforded them the advantage over us to the door.

  Zhuii, with a shove to Noyel’s fluffy head, mashing it into a growing snowdrift to our left, made it to the door first, ignoring Noyel’s angry snarls, and shoved it open.

  Tokre gave a short nod and stepped inside. He wasn’t two steps in before a deep breath left him in a whoosh and we started to fall. I squeaked and clutched at him, feeling more than a bit weak myself, then screeched as he began to take huge, swerving, drunken steps. Soon we were spinning, the world swirling around me, then falling.

  We crashed to the floor in a heap, Tokre’s arms wrapped around me protectively, his hand at the back of my head, the other along my spine, breaking the worst of my fall.

  Zhuii came rushing in, slamming the door behind him. At my stunned scream, his head jerked. He took one look at us and scrambled to Tokre. Zhuii murmured softly in their beastly language, a beastly curse under his breath, his eyes wide in his large face.

  “Be careful,” I squawked out, “he’s hurt!”

  The blue top tinted beast gave me the strangest look as he approached. He stood right over us, pausing to stare down at me, Tokre’s weight attempting to crush me as he mumbled intelligibly. At the look on my face, an overwhelming, fierce sense of protectiveness washing over me, he gave a short nod.

  Something slammed the door, a banging thud crashing into the heavy wood, followed by what could only constitute a beastly curse and a muffled groan. What I assumed was more of that beastly version of cursing followed, a few ‘Zhuii’s thrown in there for good measure.

  Neither of us even flinched.

  “You locked the door,” I croaked out unnecessarily.

  Zhuii, not seeing fit to answer that, though his lips quirked just the slightest bit, murmured softly, “Zhuii careful with Rosie-lindy’s Tokr
e.”

  Bending down, crouching to carefully, as gently as possible, roll Tokre’s hefty frame off of me, he turned my injured mate onto his back.

  “Ggrrrrrrr! Zhuii!” Noyel shouted. “Tokre and Zhuii and Rosie need Noyel! Need Noyel’s help!”

  At my first true, unhindered view of Tokre’s chest as Zhuii stood back, Zhuii’s hands already soaked in red, I cringed, my fingers clenching, and began wringing them. I will not be losing my anything again. I won’t.

  “Need to wash. Clean up,” Zhuii grunted out. The wild looking beastie grumbled something under his breath, shaking his shaggy head. With a soft curse his head lifted, his odd gaze shifting from his friend’s injuries to meet mine. “Cloths, water, Fix It paste.”

  “Fix It... paste?” I mumbled stupidly, blinking up at him.

  “Mm.” The male gave a curt nod, grimacing when his attention was drawn to the door and the jarring thuds rattling it. “Dorothy and mates know how to make.”

  “Dorothy?” Like in the Wizard of Oz, my addled brain wondered. I was just shy of voicing my thoughts before common sense permeated the thick fog muddling my mind.

  “Dorothy. Healer. Mate healer, too. Erm,” he grunted in the door’s direction, “Dorothy’s whelps, some healers.” He admitted this so grudgingly, a churlish look on his face as he gave the barrier between us and the taller beast a dirty look.

  “Only one worth mentioning,” I heard muttered from beyond the door in perfect English.

  Zhuii’s lip curled and he snickered, a snarl of a chortle leaving his lips.

  Another growl from beyond the door before it stopped altogether. “Noyel’ll be back, Zhuii-ass!” Noyel snarled out most vehemently, back to his broken speak. “Bring the things for Rosie’s mate. Zhuii will open,” his fist pounded for emphasis, “this,” another wall rattling slam, “door! Or else!”

  While all this was going on and I gaped at the door, sidled up next to Tokre as he lay incapacitated on the floor, my hand clutching his desperately, Zhuii had already begun collecting things, cloths, a pot to boil water in.

  This can’t be happening. This isn’t happening, I told myself. I did not just get kidnapped by a humanoid man beast in some kind of bridal hunt, toted off to an unknown place, plane, dimension, whatever it was, for him to take my virginity, mate himself to me, get in some crazy mate battle fight, and then promptly kick the bucket on me, all in less than a week.